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The journey of Wakeourlake and Nansey Restoration started in 2017 with the Thendral Lake project in Narasiman Kadu village, a small village nestled in the foothills of Kolli Hills.

The team used GIS to investigate the state of Thendral Lake dating back to ten years along with an extensive field survey to identify where the crisis stemmed from. The analysis revealed the drastic depletion of groundwater resources in the area wherein deep borewells ranging from 800-1,000 feet went completely dry, forests had started to lose their green cover, and crop yields in the villages failed. The Thendral Lake, one of the first lakes chosen to be revived once had a capacity of over 2 Crore Litres without any proper inlet channels but had dried up and caused water scarcity in the nearby villages.

To revive this lake from being completely dried up, Wakeourlakes and Nansey came up with a plan to convey water to the lake through a kilometer-long canal from the adjacent hills. It took considerable effort and time to get permission from the Forest Department and gather support and trust from the local community. Permission from the forest department and collectorate was obtained on the 15th of July 2017. The very next day Nansey and Wakeourlake along with the help and support of NSS students and the local community gathered to construct the 1km trench and successfully completed the channel.

Nansey and Wakeourlakes were delighted to know that the channel worked effectively as the rains after the construction of the channel brought Thendral Lake back to life for the first time in 40 years and the ecosystem as well as groundwater conditions are improving at an accelerating rate around the lake.

https://wakeourlake.org/blog/Thendral